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In Ms. Kristen Walerowicz’s third hour class, freshman Aymen Mohammad and his classmates pull out their phones for the first three minutes of class. Ms. Walerowicz allows each of her classes three minutes of screen time before the lesson starts each day. “We barely have any time to get on our phones during the day,” Mohammad said. Photo by Kyly Jacobs
Regulation Refresh Stricter phone, earbud policies appear after years of relaxed polices
Emme Bernard Staff Reporter Junior Ally Brower walks into class each day surrounded by students who share the same kind of attachment to her phone as she does, but there is one difference. Her peers fall into temptation each day and stay on their phone during the duration of lessons and teacher instruction. The teacher has to repeat themselves over and over again because the kids are distracted by their phones, so students like Ally have to hear instructions time and time again because of her peers’ lack of control. Cell phone and earbud policies have been relaxed the last few years as both students and staff navigated the years of Covid.
Regulations dwindled. So we experience the tradeoffs of having to go back to old regulations and experience a classroom that embodies what we had previously. Students noticed an abrupt shift when they stepped into class this year and teachers asked them to put away their phones and take out their earbuds. Are these changes too strict since high school students are old enough to manage their education or are teachers helping students in the long run? First of all, these policies are strictly in the hands of the teacher and therefore vary between classrooms. This power comes from the administration, specifically principle, Dr. Suzanne Leake, who believes in the teacher’s choice when it comes to phone policies.
